UEFA president Aleksandar Ceferin, former Barcelona players Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique, and former head of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) Luis Rubiales are understood to have discussed the possibility of compensation for football players’ financial losses due to the coronavirus pandemic at the expense of UEFA funds, with a reduction.
The Objective magazine accessed the messages and recordings of Pique and Messi’s negotiations with Rubiales and Ceferin. They are evidence of attempts by European football’s governing body to “direct” funds in favor of some players whose incomes have decreased due to COVID-19.
The first conversation on this issue took place on April 2, 2020. Rubiales called Pique; the latter replied that he would call in half an hour. In that phone conversation, as it became known after the analysis of the correspondence of the former head of the RFEF with Ceferin, Pique, with the permission of Messi, expressed to Rubiales the concern of the Argentinian footballer about the significant reduction of his salary due to the epidemic. A few days ago, Barcelona proposed a 70% cut in players’ wages in response to the health crisis, which has also affected the economy.
The same day, an hour after the conversation with Pique, Rubiales contacted the UEFA president and sent him a recording via Messenger. Rubiales acted as a mediator and conveyed Messi’s concerns to Ceferin. Rubiales raised the possibility of “Uefa funds being used” to compensate players for financial losses, but both agreed that if the information became public, it would negatively impact the players’ image. Rubiales emphasized Messi’s concern about maintaining the “confidentiality” of the talks.
“They [Pique and Messi] told me clearly that no one should know that we are talking about their money because if people find out, they will kill us,” Rubiales allegedly stated.
